Publication of the book "The European ambition – The Group of the European People's Party and European integration"

The Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre on the History of European Integration (ADGRC), a joint undertaking of the History Department and the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) at the European University Institute (EUI), has just published the book “The European ambition – The Group of the European People’s Party and European integration” (Nomos).

Based on the conceptual framework of different disciplines – history, political science, European studies and political sociology – the book is the outcome of a research project tendered by the European People’s Party Group, coordinated by the Alcide de Gasperi Research Centre (EUI), and carried out by an interdisciplinary and transnational team of scholars. The project was launched in July 2017 and a conference was organised at Villa Salviati in November 2019 to present the study’s findings to the academic community.

The book traces the EPP Group’s institutional, organisational and political trajectory in the European Parliament, focusing on the period after the first direct elections in 1979. In doing so, it sheds light on the functioning of parliamentary party groups, while at the same time creating the conditions for a better understanding of their role in the process of European integration and in the EU’s political system.

Soon available via the EUI Library, the book is authored by:

Luciano Bardi, Part-time Professor at the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre (ADGRC) of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy

Wojciech Gagatek, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland

Carine Germond, Professor of European Studies at NTNU, Norway

Karl Magnus Johansson, Professor of Political Science at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

Wolfram Kaiser, Professor of European Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium

Silvia Sassano, Post-doctoral Fellow at the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy

The Alcide De Gasperi Centre on the History of European Integration, established in 2015, combines the expertise of the Department of History and Civilization at the EUI and the resources available at the Historical Archives of the European Union. The main aims of the Centre are to promote research into the History of European Integration, to support young researchers in the field and coordinate networks of historians, to facilitate the use of primary sources, as well as to disseminate historical narratives and increase public interest in the history of European integration.

Find out more about the research project and the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre.